Refrigerated display cases are a common feature of modern grocery stores. Typical refrigerated cases have a bottom and four lower sides defining a well, the well serving as a settling area for cool, refrigerated air, and as a display area for food products. Many modern refrigerated cases also have a tall back and top overhang with an open front to allow customers to view, inspect, and retrieve food items.
Competitive pressures have forced grocers to display (and sell) more goods per square foot. However, the costs of replacing functioning units with new units to add additional merchandising shelf space is prohibitive. As an alternative, grocers have installed one or more mezzanine shelves (shelves positioned above the well) in their existing refrigerated display cases in order to increase the amount of horizontal shelf space available in existing refrigerated cases. These refrigerated case conversions increase the utilization of vertical space within the refrigerated cases, and the visual impact of products, particularly through the use of multi-deck mezzanine shelving. Such replacement shelving systems thus provide a viable, cost-effective alternative for grocers needing additional refrigerated shelf space.
Multi-deck shelving case converters may be free standing. Alternatively, one or more shelves may be attached to an existing refrigerated case through a set of vertical, slotted standards provided by the manufacturer of the refrigerated case. New cases utilize similar standards. The several manufacturers of refrigerated cases have their own, varying, specifications for the horizontal spacing intervals between the vertical, slotted standards in their units.
It is the current industry practice for shelf manufacturers to fix mounting brackets to the individual shelves at the specific horizontal spacing interval of the slotted standards of the case in which the shelving is to be installed. As a result of this practice, shelf manufacturers have additional manufacturing complexity, increased inventory and warehousing requirements, and slower turnaround time in servicing customers due to the non-standard nature of the mounting bracket spacing for the shelving units.